My 9mm load

[johnandersonoutdoors]

Hey everyone. You have a noob here. I have loaded and fired 250 rounds of reloaded 9mm so far.

I am working with assorted cases (although for now I have been using .FC.), CCI 500 primers, Unique, and 115 grain FMJ from Montana Gold.

The speer (#14) manual that I have shows that the Gold Dot FMJ bullet should be seated to 1.135" and that the Unique powder charge should range from 5.6 grains to 6.3 grains.

With that in mind I loaded 50 rounds with powder charges of 5.6 and 5.8 grains. Both of these seem a little snappier than I would like to just target practice, but they worked fine so I loaded up another 200 rounds the same OAL and used 5.6 grains of Unique.

According to the manual, the speer fmj or tmj bullet should be getting about 1160fps. I don't have a chronograph but they definitely feel like they are packing more of a punch than factory federal 115 grain fmjs.

The question I have is how low can I go with the powder? I am at the bottom of the range per the loading manual (5.6 grains). I have heard that going too far under powder can actually cause overpressure in some cases and of course the obvious problem of squibs. But I really want to go lower if I can. I don't need 1160fps, I feel like 1050 would be fine. Would it be safe to download to say 5.2 or even 5.0 grains of Unique in this load?

Thank you all. Happy New Year.

 

[kingmt]

I won't give you data but some info. Reducing isn't going to cause over pressure. You can work down tool ether the slide won't move or you can't stand how dirty they are.

If you want to get less recoil I suggest ether get a heavier bullet or faster powder.

The last FC I bought barely made it out of the barrel sometimes. About 400fps.

 

[gamestalker]

Many of these type powders, or slower burning as they are considered, will get very inconsisent regarding pressures when dropped to below published data because they need the pressures to efficiently burn. As for pressures actually spiking higher, that isn't as much of a concern as pressures dropping inconsistently. You'll probably experience some cycling issues, incomplete burn, and of course the most serious issue as mentioned by you, squibs, which can occure with any powder that is reduced too far below it's charge table or used improperly.

Do some in depth reading about how powders work and what the burn rates mean in terms of your desired loading style. your Speer #14 is a very good source for learning the burn properties of the various powders. I actually learned most of my reloading from the #10 Speer many years ago, and still find myself picking it up form time to time when I need answers. Fast / slow burning powders have their intended reloading purpose.

My personal reloading style has always been with slow burning powders because I like to work with full tilt loads and don't like dealing with sudden spikes during work ups at .1 or .2 gr. increase in my charges. But thats me, you have to decide what you want from your loads.

Since you are loading with a FMJ you need to be just that much more carful about how far down you reduce. Squibs are a bit easier to encounter with a thick jacketed bullet such as those are, they either need more, and, or, longer sustained pressures to get them completely and consistently down and out of the barrel.

GS

 

[LiveLife]

Unique, and 115 grain FMJ from Montana Gold ... The question I have is how low can I go with the powder?

2004 Alliant load data lists 5.5 gr of Unique as max charge for 115 gr FMJ bullet. If you reduce the max charge by 10%, you get about 5.0 gr as start charge. You could try conducting the powder work up from 5.0 gr of Unique and see how the accuracy of shot groups trend.

BTW, Lyman #49 lists the following for 115 gr JHP and Unique:

Start 4.4 gr (996 fps) 20,600 CUP - Max 5.8 gr (1233 fps) 30,700 CUP

 

[45lcshooter]

140fps doesn't mean a hill of beans. You already can't see the bullet exit the gun. Stick with the manuals. The only thing you would need to restrict speed would be possibly at an indoor range or something.

 

[918v]

I used to shoot 5.7 grains under a 125 JSP for years. I dunno what's their problem, but these powder manufacturers keep changing data on us.

 

[rfwobbly]

Welcome to reloading.

Generally speaking, the lighter the bullet, the faster the powder. Unique is a moderately slow powder. If you want target practice bullet speeds, then you really don't need to load any bullet faster than ~1020 fps. You can go that slow with Unique, but it's going to leave the inside of the gun sooty black and messy. Unique is a great powder for slow moving 147gr and moderately fast 124gr, but not really for what you're doing with the 115gr.

May I suggest you look around for some Hodgdon HP-38 (aka Win 231) and try that. It's going to meter better and burn much cleaner at those lower speeds. You'll see either HP-38 or Win231 listed in your reloading manual and can use the data interchangeably, or you can go to the Hodgdon on-line load data.

Also print off a copy of this powder speed chart. Powder speed is not an exact science, but is good, general knowledge and this chart should be in your load reference data as a general guide.

Hope this helps!

 

[ATLDave]

Along the lines of what rfwobbly said, I also like Western's ZIP powder for practice 9mm rounds. You can make some very soft-shooting practice rounds with that - useful for impressing the guy in the next lane with your fast splits!